Manufacture of starch.



No. 638,707. Patented na. 2, |899. T. GAUNT. MANUFAGTURE 0F STABCH.(Application led Nov.l 19, 185. Bane-'qi July 28, 1899.)

(No Modal.)

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS GAUNT, OF PEORIA, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF TWO-THIRDS TO WIL- LIAMIIAMLIN AND HARRY HAMLIN, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK..

MANUFACTU RE QF STARCH.

ASSP. ECIFIQEJION forming part of Letters Patent No. 638,707, datedDecember 12, 1899.

Application led November 19, 1895. Renewed July 28,1899. Serial No.725,426. (No specimens.)

To ttZZ whom t may concern: moistening the hulls in starch-milk alreadyBe it known that I, THOMAS GAUNT, of Peobtained from the screens,grinding the hulls oria, Illinois, have invented certain new and in finebur-mills With Water, and then sepauseful Improvements in Treating Corn,of rating the starch from the feed by means of 5'5 5 which the followingis a description. shaker-screens in the Well-known manner, The improvedprocess is substantially ap and settling the starch from thegluten-water plicable to the treatment of corn for the sepauponstarch-tables. This process, it will be ration of germs, starch, feed,and the derivaseen, produces the germs already dried, the tives ofstarch. The various processes now ground hulls,and gluten,which may bemixed 6o i6 known and in use, which include the separatogether and driedto form the finished feed tion of the germs, maybe broadly classified asand the starch. By first steeping the corn for Wetand dryprocesses. Inthe dry process a suitable time in sulfurous-acid Water and the corn iscoarsely ground and is then either coarse-grinding it Wet the hullsacquire a agitated to effect the separation by the differrubber-liketoughness which enables them to 6 5 15 ent gravities of the variousconstituents or is pass through the coarse-grind mills and mixsubjectedto an air-blast which blows away ers and threshers withoutinjury. Byfreeing the perisperm and starch, leaving the germs. the hulls and germsfrom the starch and loose This process has not in practice been verygluten before attempting to separate the hulls satisfactory owing to thefact that the germs from the germs a much greater yield of starch 7o zoare to a large extent broken up in grinding, is produced and a much moreeconomical seporfif not subjected to such severe treatment aration ofthe hulls from the germs. As the the starch and adherent matter is notpropgerms must necessarily'be dried for the ex- 'erly loosened from thegerms. In the Wet traction of corn-oil, there is no additional eX-process of separation the ground hulls and pense incurred in drying thembefore sepa- 75 z5 germs are immersed in a medium of specific ration,and the amount of eXtra evaporation gravity greater than the germs, butsomewhat required to dry the hulls with the germs beiess than the hulls,and the germs therefore fore separating the germs from the hulls is,rise to the surface and may be skimmed off. more than compensated bythe great conven-A This process also presents difficulties which ienceand economy of the process and the 8o 3o interfere with its beingcarried out in a comgreater yield of germs and greater freedom ofmercially-economic manner,except by the use the feed from the oilcontained in the germs. of complicated apparatus. Moreover, suchportions of the germs as have The objects of the present invention areto almost invariably gotten into the hulls and Ieffect the separation ofgerms, starch, feed, starch when the corn is ground dry in the 85 g5 andgluten in a thoroughly simple, effective, first instance materiallyinterfere with the and economic manner, and to do away with separationof the starch, probably because of the objections and difficultiespresented by the oily nature of the ge rms, and this objeceither of thetut-o classes of processes just outtion also is removed by Inyimprovedprocess. lined. The annexed diagram gives an outline of 9o 4o Brieflystated, the improved process in its the principal steps of the process,but is not completer aspect consists in steeping the corn intended toindicate details. to soften it, coarsely grinding and threshingPreferably the corn is steeped for thirty it or beating it in a Wetstate, so that the hours or more in sulfurous-acid Water of about germsmay be loosened from the adherent three-tenths-per-cent. strength and ata tem- 95 45 starch and perisperm, Washing the ground peratureoffroml()Oto 120. Itis then ground corn upon screens, so as to remove the loosinhigh-grind mills, which are so set that cned starch and leave only thehulls and while theybreak the kernels into coarse fraggerms, drying thecommingled hulls and ments they cannot crush the germs. At this germs,separating the hulls from the germs by portion of the process the germ,having been roo 5o adry-separation process, which maybe either steeped,is of a leather-like or rubber-like a blast of air or dry agitation,then again toughness, and can only be injured by direct crushing betweenhard surfaces. From the coarse-grind mills the ground corn, mixed withthe sulfurous-acid water, is run through mixers, where it is violentlystirred or agitated, and then passes through threshers, which whileforcibly beating the coarselyground corn in no way injure the v toughgerms. From the threshers or beaters the coarsely-ground corn is runonto a shakerscreen, where it is treated with more sulfurous-acid Waterand the starch to a large extent Washed from it. Up to this point thepresent inventicn and the one described in my prior application, filedSeptember l, 1896, serially numbered 604,509, are substantiallyidentical. The heavy starch-milk obtained from this shaker is afterwardscreened on finer screens to separate such feed as may have passedthrough the first screens and is then ready to be run onto thestarch-tables. The thin milk obtained from the lower end of the shakers,where the corn has been Well washed, is used to again soak the hullsafter they have been dried and separated from the germs. This separationof the hulls from the germs is accomplished by first running the hullsand germs through squeezers, which remove a large portion of the watercontained, and then drying the hulls and germs and introducing them inthe dry state into the dryseparator. Preferably the dry separation iseffected by means of a draft of air, as Will be Well understood, thoughit must be noticed that in my process the hulls and germs have firstbeen freed from a large amount of the starch. The germs are obtained ina dry state from the separator and are therefore all ready to be treatedfor the expressing of cornoil and the production of oil-cake. The hullsare, however, taken from the separator and soaked with the thinstarch-milk from the shaker-screen orf rom the squeezers and againground Very finely in tine-grind bur-mills. I nd that these twosuccessive grindings of the corn, rst coarsely and then finely, inaddition to separating the germs without injury result in the productionof a very much finer feed, and also in the yield of a much greaterquantity of starch. From the fine-grind mills the hulls are again washedon shaker-screens and a large yield of starch-milk obtained. This secondgrinding of the hulls in fine-bur mills, and, indeed, the subsequenttreatment for the separation and drying of the feed and the separationof the starch and gluten-Water, are substantially identical in thispresent process and in the process described in the application I havealready referred to. The feed after being Washed upon the shakerscreensmay be run through squeezers or presses and finally dried and mixed withgluten. The starch-milk obtained from these shaker-screens, as well asthe heavy starchmilk obtained from the shaker-screens used to separatethe starch from the ground hulls and germs, may be treated by successiveshaker-screens to extract such feed that has passed through the coarsermesh first used, and the starch then nally settled from the gluten-Waterupon the starch-tables.

Having now fully set forth the complete process which forms thesubject-matter of this specification and having specifically' set forththe several subprocesses or successive steps which distinguish it fromother processes with which I am familiar, I claim and desire to secureby these Letters Patent of the United States The improved process oftreating corn by coarsely grinding or partially reducing thepreviously-steeped corn in a wet state, separating the free starchliquor from the commingled hulls and germs, then subjecting thecommingled hulls and germs to heat until dry,

then subjecting the hulls and germs to an airblast thereby separatingthe hulls from the germs; and subsequently finely grinding the hulls andtreating them for the separation of starch.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of thetwo subscribing witnesses.

THOMAS GAUN T.

\Vitnesses:

THOMAS J. HARTY, CARRIE M. GILL.

